Rigorous
by estheralex16
Summary: I got the idea for this fanfic from a line in sunsetofdoom's fanfic Strength on deviantart. Ferb's gotten himself into a bit of trouble over seas and if he can't think his way out of it his family may never know what happened to him. There will be more but I'm not completely happy with how the rest of the story is going so I'm open to suggestions.
1. Chapter 1

"Who do you work for?" The man's fist made contact with his face.

Ferb's head snapped to the left Ferb's clouded brain provided the name Amar for his current abuser and it reminded him that it was time to use his Russian accent.

"Vhy should I tell you?" Ferb spat the blood collecting in his mouth onto Amar's shoes. Amar jumped back, but not before the red glob landed on his black leather boot. Ferb's head was slammed against the wall, but he couldn't hide the smile on his face as his vision left him.

Ferb was on a mission for the Organization Without a Cool Acronym in Iraq. The OWCA was working with the US Marines gathering information on smaller terrorist groups so that the Marines could focus on Al-Qaida. The OWCA would normally use animals for jobs like this, but this particular group had learned from other groups to distrust any animal that was not native to the Middle East. That is why Ferb was called on to gather information. His ability to pick up languages and accents made him the perfect spy. He could pass as a native speaker within a few months of learning the language. This skill usually meant he didn't get caught, this time it meant his captors had no idea who he was.

Ferb awoke cold and wet; someone had decided that he had slept enough and thrown a bucket of cold water on him. Ferb also suspected that they were hoping he would cry out without thinking and they would at least know where he was from, but years of silent communication had taught Ferb to remain silent when surprised. As Ferb's eyes finally focused, he discovered that things had gotten worse. He was no longer lying on the floor but had been chained to the ceiling and his toes barely touched the floor. _Great, what new hell is this? _He couldn't see the man who had thrown the water on him, but based on the fact that it was mainly his back that was wet, the man was most likely standing behind him. Water continued to run down his pant leg and drip onto the floor. His shirt had disappeared while he was blacked out.

"Are you going to tell me who you are working for?" a man asked, from behind his back as Ferb had expected.

Ferb remained silent. He still believed that the less he talked, the better: he was less likely to make a mistake that way.

"Are you sure you do not wish to talk?" The man said as a crack echoed in the small room.

Ferb swallowed but still did not say a word.

"Very well," the man said, and then the first blow landed.

Ferb was expecting the lash but it still hurt like hell. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose to control the pain and waited for the next swing. Ferb's body jerked as the next blow cracked against his back, but still he did not cry out. Ten times the whip fell onto his exposed skin, and Ferb didn't make a sound.

"I am sure you think you are strong, but I should tell you that everyone sings for me eventually and you will be no different."

"Go to hell," Ferb said as he tried to breath through the pain.

"Very well." The lashes started again.


	2. Chapter 2

The man would stop from time to time to ask Ferb a question, but other than that there was no pause in the man's arm. Ferb was not sure exactly when it happens but at some point, through the fog the pain created in his brain, he noticed he could no longer feel when the whip hit his back. His was dizzy from all the blood lose and Ferb was not sure how much longer he could stay conscious, soon he just stopped fighting to stay awake conscious and let himself drift in and out of blackness. His captors knew he could not answer questions if he was not conscious, so the torture usually stopped once he blacked out.

Soon Ferb's semi-awake brain realized that he could no longer hear the snap of the whip. The man asking questions and Amar were talking in Farsi. Ferb figured they thought he couldn't speak the language because they only spoke to him in English.

"I have never seen someone hold out this long, we will have to try something else."

"He will not like that. You were supposed to be able to break anyone. What is so different about this one?"

"I don't know. It's like he doesn't care. At this rate, I think he will die before he says anything."

"Have you tried holding a gun to his head and threatening to pull the trigger if he doesn't talk?"

"That wouldn't work he knows that we'll kill him anyway after he talks, we can't risk him getting back to whoever he works for. He has the training, so he must know a lot."

"Or he could really know nothing."

"No he's had training, those who really know nothing sing like little birdies before the whip even touches skin. We don't even know what this guy's accent is, let alone his name, or who he is working for. We can't even ransom him because we don't know who would care."

Ferb smiled too himself, his captors had no idea how to react when someone does not act like everyone else. They were in a panic, and it sounded like their boss wasn't happy about his silence ether. Most people got nervous when around him because he never acted like what they believed to be normal. Even when he was a kid and building amazing things in the back yard with his brother, people always naturally ignored him and listened to Phineas, because they were more comfortable with his step-brother's babble then Ferb's silence. These men had no idea how to deal with him, and Ferb knew that if he wasn't careful he could end up getting shot in this hell hole. Maybe he should start to think about letting some information slip, maybe he'd pick an accent so that these men would try to ransom him and then at least someone would know where he was. Ferb would have to think about it.

"So what are we going to do with him?"

"I've got a few more ideas, but if they don't work we may have to try 'something else'."

The way the man said "something else" put Ferb's teeth on edge. He had a very high pain tolerance, he had ever since he was a kid and it had only increased with age, but there was only so much pain even he could take.

Maybe it was time to think about how he could avoid the "something else." He could lie, but the lie had to be believable so there had to be some truth in it. His Russian had fooled native speakers who were on the lookout for spies, so he could be working for them. His fake American accent was good too, and that way at least his agency might here about him, but what if they really broke him. He wouldn't remember what accent he chose until after he slipped, and then would they believe a man with a flawless British accent was really working for the Americans? For some reason everyone thought that Americans still resented the British for a war that had been over and done with for 200 years, it wasn't true but people still believed it. Maybe it would be better if he said he was working for the Brits. That way if he did slip up with the accent it wouldn't matter, and he was still a British citizen so they might think about rescuing him.

Then all he would have to do is convince his captors that the operation had just started and that he hadn't had time to find out anything important before he was caught. After they thought he was no longer a threat to them personally, all he would have to do is convince them he really did know nothing about what the British were planning to do, and seeing as he really didn't it wouldn't be that hard to do. Then all Ferb had to do was stay alive long enough for help to come. Ferb hoped he wouldn't have to use his half-truth, but it was better to have the plan in place then to be thinking of it when his brain was cloudy from pain.

Ferb continued to recite his story to himself as he slowly fell into a fitful sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry I haven't posted in a while I've just been busy and had a bit of writer's block on this one. This is sort of a filler chapter but more will be coming soon. I just have to decide which medieval torture device I want to use on Ferb. I will take suggestions if anyone has an idea about where this story should go. I have this idea in my mind about including a love interest for Ferb. I don't know if that is going to happen yet but if it does I'll have to decide between Isabella and Vanessa, so if you have a preference one way or the other let me know and which ever gets the most votes will be the leading lady if she appears at all. Thanks for reading this and as always I'd love to hear from you. Now on to the story.**

Ferb must have finally passed out from all the blood loss because he could not remember being moved to the table he was currently chained to, face down, with his back exposed to the cool air blowing in from somewhere. Ferb jerked as something warm and wet touched his back.

"Shhh" a voice said as what Ferb now realized was a cloth slowly cleaned the dried blood on his back. Ferb tried to stay still as the woman, because it was a woman, wiped away the grime from his broken skin. It appeared that these men did not want him to die of infection before they got the information they wanted.

Ferb wondered how long he had been out, he thought about asking the women currently cleaning his wounds but the chances of her speaking English were slim and Ferb didn't want them to know he spoke Farsi because they would stop disusing their plans around his and Ferb like to know what was coming next. He could deal better with the pain if he knew what was coming.

"You are lucky." The woman had a thick accent but she was still speaking English. It took Ferb a second to realize he had been wrong and that she was speaking his native language and another to remember to answer her in a French accent.

"Why do you say that?" Ferb's throat was dry and it scratched as he spoke.

"Because if you live all you will have is scars. Your nerves are not damaged."

Ferb was pretty sure she meant permanently damaged because he was pretty sure there had to be some damage for him to stop feeling the lashes, or his brain had just decided to shut his pain receptors off. Either way Ferb was happy to hear that the woman didn't think he would have anything more then scaring. He could live with a few more scars.

Ferb was trying to think of something else to ask the woman but his thought process was slow due to all the blood lose, then Amar came in. Ferb was surprised he hadn't heard the man's steps as he came down the hallway. If he wasn't careful Ferb was going to end up dead before anyone had time to look for him. He made a promise to himself to spend his remaining energy on focusing on what was going on around him rather than the feeling of the warm cloth on his back.

"How is he?" Amar asked the woman in Farsi.

"He will live, he is strong." The woman said as she continued to tend to Ferb's wounds.

"How long before he will be ready?" Those words drained any warmth that had found its way into Ferb's body, it felt like an eternality passed before the woman answered and not with the words he wanted to hear.

"Not long now."


End file.
